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Jain Thought and Culture
Jaina temple The excavation work done by the Department of Archaeological Survey of India during the years 1959-60 has exposed to view the jagati of the main temple and the subsidiary shrines. The image was so significant and popular that the city was called as Parsavanagar or Paranagar in the medieval times 10
A number of Jaina sculptures and inscribed images of other seated Tirthankaras were also found They are now preserved in the store of the Archaeological Survey of India at the Nilakantha temple With the help of these fragmentary records the date of the temple and the images, and the extant of Jainism in this area could be known with out much difficulty An inscription of V S 979 (923 A D) of the reign of the local ruler Savata mentions the construction and installation of the image of Santinatha in Rajyapura by the Jaina architect, Sarvadeva 11 The stone bearing this inscription was found from this temple From this it becomes clear that the consecration ceremony referred to in this inscription was of the temple where this image stands Therefore, 923 A D is also the date of the installation of this colossal image as it is the principal image of this temple Savata and his son Mathanadeva were the Hindu feudatory chiefs of the Gurjara Pratihara, dynasty ruling at Kanauj 12 The other inscribed images also indicate that the temple was in actual worship till the end of the 13th century AD There is also an inscribed image of Mahavira in Yogamudra in black stone which was installed in one of the subsidiary shrines of the temple in VS 1203 (AD 1146) Another image of Padma Prabha was consecrated in this temple in VS 1310 (AD 1253) It shows that the Jainisin was flourishing in this part of the Rajasthan during this period
10 K C Jain, Ancient Cities and Towns of Rajasthan, Motilal Banarsidass Delhi, 1972, p 195
11 Indian Archaeology A Review, 1961-62, p 85.
12 F Kielhorn, "Inscription of Mathanadeva V S 1016", Epigraphia Indica III, pp 263-67
